Asian Bizav Group Gains Momentum

The Asian Business Aviation Association (AsBAA) expects this year’s ABACE to be an active one, potentially bringing the region’s business aviation industry out of the doldrums it has been in since the staging of last year’s event.

AsBAA board member Jean Noel Robert, who is also a Hong Kong-based senior executive with Airbus, told AIN, “After a lot of excitement right before the event last year and in the two months afterwards, things went quiet; almost everything stopped.” Robert attributed the drop-off in activity to economic uncertainty and impending political changes in the U.S. and China. “Everyone was in observer mode, so we had a bit of a rollercoaster feeling in the industry last year.” As a result, “2012 was a bit of a disappointment compared with 2011, [which] was a great year, especially in China.”